special is a battleground cocktail. >> voters in states like ohio, virginia and florida will decide this incredibly important election, which begs the question, what are we doing here? >> like a smooth bourbon, the states are what matters most, not the national polls. we go state by state this time, huh? as nate silver says, national polls show a race roughly tied on average, while state polls indicate a narrow advantage for president obama and tipping point states like ohio. for the first time ever, though, mitt romney leads the rcp's electoral map 206-201, but you need 270 to get aboard air force one. the toss-uppers are 131 votes. by now we can name the battle grounlds in a drunken stupor, we'll focus on ohio, wisconsin, new hampshire, iowa and nevada. there are 44 electoral votes up

for grabs and it may rest on the strength of obama's firewall. it's 281 obama, 257 romney. if romney wins two of the sfooifts i mentioned, romney will win. i don't want to get drunk on hypotheticals, because let's be honest, that's more of a kornacki thing. steve, tell them what's the deal. >> i think there's a lot of different ways to look at athe electoral map, but the way i narrow is down is this. there's four obama states starting to lean towards romney. he really needs them and let's say he gets them. that's north carolina, florida, colorado and virginia. that puts him at 257. at that point to win the election there are two paths for mitt romney, and these are the fooift states to pay attention to. the first path is to win the state of ohio. he's your next president, but he's not doing that well in ohio. let's say he loses ohio. here's the next path.

wisconsin may be more winnable at this point for the romney campaign than ohio is. we went over the reasons yesterday. if you win wisconsin all you need from romney is one of three states, new hampshire, iowa, or nevada. when wisconsin plus one of those, you're also over 270. those are the path i'm looking at. >> wisconsin is historically democratic. >> in 2000 and 2004 the margin was less than one point. the swing was one of the biggest in the country, which means there are more votes up for grabs potentially to come back to the republican fold for mitt romney. that state swung hard in 2010 to the republicans. they hope if that move prevails, he can win the state. >> there's a chance sdit all steve's math we could have a tie, both candidates at 269. why did the framers allow for that possibility? we could end up with one winning the popular vote and the other winning the electoral college. we know howe well that can work out.

ed rendell ran the dnc during the re-election recount. how are you? >> good afternoon, guys. >> i'm concerned, governor, that the state of the race and the volatility of the polls and the way things look now that whoever wins, this thing could be so close you could have people saying that there's a legitimacy problem and that half of the country is saying, i don't feel like i need to respect the person who's won because it was so close because there must have been some shinkanery. we've seen that with the bush presidency and obama presidency. governor, do you think we might have that sort of problem coming out of this election and a challenge to government because of the way the election ended? >> first of all, it's not necessarily just the election results. remember, president obama won fairly significant vote both popular and electoral, and he had some of the same legitimacy problems. president bush lost the popular vote but managed to govern i think relatively effectively.

i don't think there was a legitimacy problem for very long. look, i think you're staring at a very potentially likely scenario of mitt romney carrying the popular vote and losing the electoral vote. if you believe gallup, and i have to believe gallup, but if he's by 7 in the gallup poll, there's a chance he will win the popular vote but also a fairly good chance. those scenarios, by the way, i wouldn't concede colorado and virginia for the obama campaign, not in a minute. so i think there's a very legitimate chance that romney wins the popular vote, loses the electoral vote. remember, if john kerry switched 70,000 votes, he could have carried -- in ohio he would have kaerd the electoral college and yet infished 3 million votes behind george bush. >> nate silver has an interesting breakdown why gallup is now an outlier and why we

don't need to pay attention to that. historical things there. if that happens, one man wins the electoral and the other wins the popular, don't you think that could be devastating for the country in terms of ripping us apart and creating the legitimacy problem in the second obama administration when it existed in the first one? >> i think not for two reasons. number one, it didn't hurt george bush. george bush managed to govern and got democratic cooperation on the vote on the war, he got democratic cooperation on medicare part d. he got democratic cooperation on no child left behind. so he managed to do it. now, it's a different scenario with obama. there's no question about that. i think what will pull the nation together, if that outcome occurs, is the need to do something to deal with the fiscal crisis. crisis has a tendency to be the one driving force that can bring people together. in government we say, don't waste a good crisis, because it's an opportunity to get

things done. i think we're facing such a dangerous path that i think people will have to govern together regardless of who wins, whether it's governor romney, president obama re-elected, whatever the congressional makeup is. so i wouldn't worry about that, but i do think we ought to take a hard look at the electoral college in this country. the time has come. >> governor, toure mentioned some of the animosity, the questions about legitimacy that would occur if the vote is split, and i think he's probably right. let me ask you about the other possibility, that romney wins. can you tell me with certainty that you won't hear obama supporters crying foul and blaming two things, voter suppression and racism, on romney's win? >> i don't think so. i think voter suppression, this is a statement that you guys might have not thought of. i think voter suppression is actually going to help democrats, and if you look at

some of the early voting tallies, what's clear to me is that a lot of minority voters are getting out and voting with with a vengeance. they may have been a little lukewarm about what's happened in the first three and a half years of the obama administration, but when you tell someone they can't vote or they feel you're trying to take away their vote, i think it motivates them. if you look at early voting returns, it's clear in ohio, for example, heavy minority turnout. heavy minority turnout. people are stirred up. in pennsylvania where we haven't had any ads, where there's no sense there's a real race going on, i think you see a very strong minority turnout for both the african-american and latino simply because this horrible voter suppression law that finally got stayed by the state supreme court. >> governor, i want to make sure. if romney wins, i get you back on the program and we can talk about folks in the media and folks on the left blaming racism and voter suppression, then? >> only if there's a studio in

toronto. no, i'm only kidding. >> well played. >> fair enough. >> governor, i want to follow-up a little bit on that possible romney victory scenario. it's obviously real at it this point. you cite the example when bush won in 2001 despite all of the contentiousness democrats did work with him in his first term. you look at how republicans greeted obama's election in 2008, however, it was a strategy of reflexive object position and total and complete obstruction. it was really strategic. we'll deny him bipartisan achievements and spend the next four years railing about broken promises, he didn't make washington work again and all this stuff from mitt romney. i'm wondering if that strategy they had is rewarded with a midterm try jump in a 2012 election by mitt romney, do you think democrats will say, hey they're onto something here. that's how we'll treat president romney. >> i don't think we can aafford to do that, and i'm obviously a

good partisan democrat and i was party chairman. i don't think we can afford to do that. the problems are so severe, if governor romney reaches out, like he said in the two debates, he knows how to work with democrats. if he reaches out, he has dood a seminal -- governor romney has tootd one thing if he wants to engender democratic cooperation. he has to say to his base, guys, this problem is so bad that we've got to solve it, and that means we have to raise revenue. >> and you think there's a realistic possibility he'd do that? >> i think mitt romney cares about trying to do something for this country, he's got to do that. just like barack obama, and you've heard president obama say it. he said, we're going to have to do something about entitlements and spending. he has a plan -- i give president obama credit. he has a plan to do two and a half times spending cuts for one part revenue enhancements, and that's a formula, i think, that can turn the debt and deficit

problems around. i think governor romney has to do that. he has to -- i think the base will hate to hear this, but he has to govern more like a moderate. whatever happens, democrats will have more than 41 votes in the senate. he has to get democrats to cooperate to make anything work, and we're not going to solve the debt and deficit problem. there isn't an economist out there who thinks you can solve it without increasing revenue. >> governor, i think all election cycle we try to figure out are mitt romney's core values and what makes him tick and how is he all over the map? i think the president nailed it today. let's take a listen. >> i mean, he's changing up so much and backtracking and side-stepping. we've got to -- we've got to name this condition that he's going through. i think it's called romnesia. and if you come down with a case

of romnesia and you can't seem to remember the policies that are still on your website or the promises you've made over the six years you've been running for president, here's the good news. obama care covers pre-existing conditions. >> pretty good line from the president there. it's already, of course, an internet name. do you think we'll hear more about romnesia on monday? >> probably not in the debate, but probably in the next 18 days. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. i better let you go now. you have people saying please proceed, governor. >> that was awesome, please proceed. >> thank you very much. up next, the candidates cracking jokes and entertaining the crowd at an event last night here in new york. we'll pit the spin on that as "the cycle" rolls on for friday, october 19th. honey, they have the 55 inch lg...

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everyone please take your seats. otherwise, clint eastwood will yell at them. >> it's nice to finally relax and to wear what ann and i wear around the house. >> some of you guys remember after my foreign trip in 2008, i was attacked as a celebrity because i was so popular with our allies overseas. i have to say i'm impressed with how well governor romney has avoided that problem. >> president obama and i are

each very lucky to have one person always in our corner. someone we can lean on and someone who's a comforting presence without whom we couldn't go another day. i have my beautiful wife, ann, he has bill clinton. >> hilarious. >> what? >> just a selection of the jokes from last night's the dinner in new york. it's a traditional campaign stop that lets them show their humorous side. while we love to hear them trade barbs, the question needs to be asked, why do they do? quick word on al smith. he ran for president in 1928 against herbert hoover at a time when it was a really bad, really inconvenient to be two things. irish and catholic. >> irish need not apply. >> he was both. >> he faced a huge wave of discrimination, anti-catholic

and anti-heirish. the anti-catholic sentiment was so large that people accused him of moving the holy see to new york just to have the pope in his back pocket. >> wow. >> the al smith has become this opportunity midway or toward the end of the campaign to sort of laugh things off. you see both candidates in the same room, which is bizarre off of a debate speech. >> not yelling at each other. >> not yelling at each other and laughing at themselves, which is so great. that said i much prefer this to some of the other really silly, stupid president tricks that we see them, you know, put through during election season. such as this great moment from earlier in the primary season. >> we this thing called this or that to learn a little bit about the penalty of the candidates. leno or conan? >> probably leno. >> elvis or johnny cash? >> oh, that's really tough. that's really tough. both. >> "dancing with the stars" or

"american idol"? >> "american idol." >> that was so dumb i wanted to stick my fingers in my eye and twirl them around. >> i liked it. >> awful. >> i liked it. >> it's so not telling. the whole idea of this, of the beater test matters. we're stuck with these guys in our consciousness and living room for at least four years, if not 40 years if they're part of history. we want to know they're not an insufferable bore. they like to eat cookies or like a certain kind of music we like or what have you. we want to know that. i think that's valuable. human beings have ideas about other people on a gut level, right? like in seven seconds, so those things matter in telling people who this other person is. if you haven't decided by now, based on all the policies we've heard about, that you're not going to decide based on that, you're going to decide based on his wife making a nice cookie, so i'll vote for him. >> i decided i wouldn't vote for

herman cain because he said deep dish. thin crust! >> see, it matters. one point on al smith, which is i think the best thing about it is it gives the candidates a chance to be self-depricating. when they get caricatured on "saturday night live" they can laugh about it. something george w. dush did very well and this president did it very wane. in defense of jeong king in this or that, there's nothing i loathe more than talking points. anything that you can do that gets politicians off of their talking points and makes them think on their feet, sets them a little bit off-balance, i'm in favor of. i think that's ultimately the point of elvis/johnny cash. >> do you really think that gingrich watching "american idol"? >> yes. >> no! no! >> i do. >> bachmann, very weelvis or ca.

if this was about policy they could submit white papers and we could be done with them. we want to see how they perform. that's the truth of it. >> there's something to be said in england there's this split between the governing leaders and then the royalty that sum bolizes the country and speaks more to the culture. we don't have the divide here, so i think there's a hunkering on the part of voters to know their national leaders and president as people. i like the al smith dinner as a tradition. there's other examples of this going back to where we think of richard nixon going on "laugh in" on the 1968 campaign. >> some it ck it to me. >> jimmy carter giving an interview to "playboy" magazine. i'm getting there. nan nancy reagan going to diff'rent strokes. when this almost reached

saturation level was 1992. bill clinton made the talk show runs. he was on donahue show earlier that year and on arsenio hall and plays the saxophone and the big iconic moments when the woman says governor clinton, boxer or briefs. here you go. watch the clip. >> is it boxers or briefs? >> usually briefs. >> he answered the question. you expect that these days. >> blah. >> no one would ask ross perot or bush that question? >> is there a tmi point? >> never. that's why twitter -- >> that's too much information. >> twitter and facebook are so popular, because we're so desperate to get a sense of who they really are. not just who they want us to believe they are. who are they really? >> don't they have the responsibility to say, too much? that's too much.

>> i think they definitely do. when we got to this idea of with the obamas, we know the lincoln bedroom is suddenly rocking again, that's tmi. we knew that. >> thanks, toure. up next, bill clinton, again, addresses a group of world leaders who might actually change the world for the better. the man heralded at the davos for young people joins us in the guest spot next.

basically the world faces three great challenges. maybe 300, but they all fall into basically -- they fall into three big baskets. the modern world generates a lot of wealth, a lot of ideas, a lot of entrepreneurialism. it's full of people like you who

come to conferences like this. this is stimulating and exciting and wonderful. the problem is, huge numbers of people from every country here represented are left out of this proce process, and therefore, there's too much inequality. >> wow. i know what the three big problems are. that's bill clinton giving a keynote address at one young world summit under way in pittsburgh. the event held as davos for young people brings together 1500 teens and 20-somethings from countries to discuss serious global problems like the middle east, climate change and hunger relief. this isn't imaginary world leader camp. they have impacted 4 billion people and there are currently more than 125 projects in the works. if the adults can't fix the world's problems, maybe the young people can get it done. as it was in isaiah, a little child shall leave them. the co-founder of one young

world and ceo of habits worldwide, david jones. david, how are you? >> i'm very good. how are you? >> good. david, were you actually at the president's speech. i would love to know what are the three big buckets the world's problems are in? >> i was sitting next to him throughout his speech. his speech was about a half an hour. he went into a whole bunch of different areas. the problem of business to do good and the ngos and the need of the money that the ngos are generating to reach the end point. i mean, it was a very broad and inspirational speech. >> what is the whole major point of your whole -- of this whole thing? what are you trying to accomplish? >> very simply i think we've got an incredibly unique generation of young people. i came offstage from being with jack dorsey, the founder of twitter and square. i think people like mark zuckerberg are an example it's the youngest people in the world today that best understand the revolution that's changing our

world. they're smart. they're empowered. they're knowledgeable, and they believe that not only can can they change the world but they have an obligation to. so the whole idea behind one young world is to say we'll bring together 1,500 of them from 183 countries so only the olympics games bring us together more countries. what we want to do is create a platform for them to affect positive change. we bring them together with counselors. we talked about president clinton and coukofi anon comes richard branson and the founder of wikipedia and ariane na huffington. amazing people that believe in the power of young people and give their time to help them drive positive change. >> you mentioned mark zuckerberg and exceptional young people. by and large this is an age group notoriously disengaged. don't you think we should ask young people to become more invested and prove they can be responsible citizens by voting

in healthier numbers before we ask them their political opinions? >> yeah, i think you have to ask them why they're disengaged. obviously, what we have here, we have the people who are changing the world in -- brilliant young people under 25 but already in positions of leadership. we're not talking about the general population. we did a survey of 2,000 young people age 20 to 29 in the u.s. only 72% of them are going to vote, so 28% are not voting. only 31% of them believe that their voice is listened to. one of the key things that's an opportunity and threat is if the brilliant political leaders and future leaders engage with young people. not only help get them elected but do a better job governing. if they don't, there's a burchl of problems that come out of that. one of the things that president obama did in getting elected was he was able to leverage the pair of social media and young people to get into office. the question is, who is going to

win that battle in the vote of -- in the choice of young people this time around? >> david, i look at that number of 72% planning to vote, but we know that 72% of 20 to 29-year-olds certainly won't vote. i say this to somebody who is 30 years old myself, so i'm just above that. it is a group that does not participate in the political process, and i wonder if you have some insights into why that is. is it apathy, or is it cynicism about the political process in the united states? what do you put it to? >> i think there is a cynicism. the rules of the world today or social media offer transparency and authenticity. i think one of the reasons that someone like president clinton is so impressive now is he stepped out of the front line and can be very honest and very authentic. i think the young people see that. we've had a debate where they constantly say we want political

leaders to engage with one young world. we had bill clinton last night and the ex-prime minister of the netherlands today and david cameron today. i think what young people are looking for is politicians and political leaders who are genuine, who are authentic and listen to them. i disagree that they are disengaged. what i see around the world is it is the brilliant young people who are drifiving so much chang. i think they will succeed where our generation has failed. >> david, i think that you're right, absolutely. david jones, thank you very much. good luck with the rest of the conference. >> thank you. >> i think david makes a point that there is a level of engagement with this generation, the millennial generation they care about the world and believe they can change the world, the gen x generation that felt disconnected and couldn't change the world as opposed to the baby boomers. they don't feel they want to vote or get involved, but other

ways they want to change the world. >> here's one way i think they'll change the world maybe indirectly. i look at that poll that they took asking these young people, you know, if you're going to vote, how did you make up your mind? debates, family and friends, news, associate media. way down at the bottom of the list television ads, 5%. think about the viewing habits about young people it's about dvring things and tivo. look at this election. how much money is spend on ads? how dependent they are running ads. if this is the future, imagine campaigns 20 years from now. >> i'm skeptical when you ask voters to tell you how they make their minds. they say negative ads dope won' work. >> who watches it live anymore. everybody is dvr-ing. >> microtargeting is the future. up next, your brain on voting. is your subconscious making the

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does politics really all come down to looks? >> what? >> i knew that was coming? as a candidate in virginia back in 2010, it was rare that people were discussing my positions on the issues. it was much more about how i looked and how i sounded. our next guest researched the science behind politics and why we're influenced by trivial characteristics. the to pick of his column, why your irrational about obama and romney. i'm sure he's not talking about. subliminal influences guide the voting preferences. with us now is co-founder of the skeptic society and publisher of "skeptic" magazine, michael

shermer. the latest copy is out now. thanks for joining us. >> you're welcome. nice to be here. >> i have a bone to pick with you first. you say that people that look more competent win elections, and i lost my election. so what are you trying to say? >> yeah. well, there are exceptions. it's not ever case, you see. these are generalizations. basically it was summarizes research called subliminal. it shows humans are not rational calculators or mr. spock analyzing the data. we're greatly influenced by emotional subjective evaluations of things like looks and skin tone and hair and the tone of your voice and the overall package is what's called competence. basically psychologists have subjects look at pictures of

people both men or women that are either politicians or pretending to be politicians in the experiment. they're rated on a scale of 1 to 10. how competent do you think this person looks? competence is something of a subjective evaluation. somebody that looks like they can get something done. in a 2005 study at princeton, for example, they evaluated elections from 2000, 2002, and fo 2004. these were 600 house elections and 95 senatorial races around the country. the students never heard of most of the candidates and weren't told what their political parties were. it was how competent do you think this man or woman looks? in the 600 house races, 67% of the more competent races won and 72% of the more competent he not candidates won. in a follow-up study these were gubernatorial races around the country and senatorial races. before the elections they had

the students evaluate the competency of how the candidates looked, and they predicted who would win. 72% of the senatorial races and 69% of the gubernatorial races. in your case there are exceptions. clearly not 100%. we're influenced by things like symmetrical faces and a deep voice, somebody who speaks with a slightly faster than formal with not a lot of breaks and pauses. i think clinton is a master of this. looking very competent. in our current race -- >> go ahead. >> i take your point, and i agree with you. i have a very skeptical take, i'd say, on the studies you're alluding to there. it seems to me -- i agree we can be very superficial how we talk about politics and politicians and motor people when voting aren't doing a list of the ten issues that matter to me and who i vote for. you can really reduce voter

preference. you talk about house races. there's 435 house races this year. i can tell you right now without knowing who has won the competency test who will win 90% of those based on party identification. we are -- most of us are basically partisan. we make a decision who is in the tribe and we work backward to say let's justify it now. if somebody looks more competent in the other tribe, it won't split many votes. >> that's right. you're absolutely rilt. the first predictor is your tribe, your political party. so what we talk about here is the undecided voters, which way do they swing? that's what this whole election is about. in my opinion from what i've seen, i think both romney and obama are equally competent-looking in their own separate ways. they both speak with great confidence, their voices and entone nation is roughly the same and the humor is roughly the same as we saw last night. >> it's the same? what are you talking about,

brother? i don't think so. >> they all have -- you know they have comedy writers. they're not writing those jokes, but they delivered them equally competent. maybe you disagree. >> i like it, michael. my co-hosts here have covered a lot of good ground on the s substance of your piece. as a resident skeptic, i have to take advantage of this opportunity. is big foot real or fake? >> is big foot real? show me the body. in biology, you have to have a specimen. not footprints and grainy videos and blurry photographs and stories about sthithings that g bump in the night in your tent. that's not evidence. it's possible there's a big foot running around kanld or north america, but until you show me a body, no. same thing with loch ness

monster. >> i'm invested, and i'm skeptical and need a body. >> he said it's still possible and didn't rule it out. >> have you been to a raiders football game recently? >> a lot of squashes there, you're right. good job. >> thanks for that brilliant analysis of big foot. we appreciate it. >> you're welcome. up next, some inspiration on a friday afternoon. >> it started with this little group of kids, a couple of boys and they came in and started playing. we decided to take try going to nationals because it's a great experience for the children from 318 to travel to another state for a chess competition, and we won. we win again. it goes on for ten years, and we're still winning. creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic.

i've got a nice long life ahead.

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at 33 years old, i was having a heart attack. now i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i didn't know this could happen so young. take control, talk to your doctor. in some schools if you go by a stir ereotype, if you go on t chess team, you're a pariah that nobody wants anything to do with you. in 318 the geeks, they are the athletes. the geeks as the cool kids. >> what? >> kind of like where this is going already. that's a look at the news documentary that's already getting oscar buzz called "brooklyn castle." it follows five members of a chess time in an inner city high school in brooklyn where 50%

lives below the poverty line. it tells a story of the challenges facing the team on and off the chessboard. there's no question they're the kings of their domain. >> we'll chush our opponents in chess no marry. yeah. ♪ >> it isn't all fun and games, though. the film shows the tough choices facing schools and the age of budget cuts with education as an important issue as it is this november, this is a must watch for chess lovers and jocks aalike. joining us is the director of "brooklyn castle" which opens in theaters today. this is just -- to set this up for people, this is an extraordinary story. very poor school, and these kids are basically the best chess players their age in the country. how did this school become a national chess powerhouse?

>> yeah. they have a lot of after school programs at 318. i think the late principal really placed a high value on after-school programs and enrichment programs. he didn't see them as extras. so when they had the opportunity to bring a chess teacher in and they won a national competition their first time around, irng the whole school got really excited about the potential for chess and what it could do for the kids the at 318. he put his support behind it, so that was about 13 or 14 years ago. fast forward, they're now the most winning junior high chess team in the nation. they win everything. it's kinldz of a testament to, i think, the potential for schools like that to do great things when you put the resources and the energy behind it. >> well, that's an interesting point, because so much of the discussion in this country about education starting from this default assumption that public education is failing in the country, teacher unions are obstacles to students getting

ahead. yet, you're telling the story here. this is not a charter school or private school. this is a public school in brooklyn, and these are union public school teachers. is there a bigger lesson maybe here for people to take from this? >> that wasn't necessarily the story we went into the film intending to tell. we thought this is a really great, unexpected tale. it's inspiring and uplifting. when we got there, i realized, you know what? this isn't the story we hear all the time. here's a title i school, 70% of the kids are from homes below the poverty level. it serves the neighborhood it's in. it's not a charter school. there's passionate teachers and a supportive administration, caring parents, and i think to myself, you know, it would be great if more good stories like this were part of the conversation. because i think people need to be reminded that good things like this are happening in public schools. >> the film looks great. it looks really inspirational.

i can't wait to see it, but i wonder what larger lessons maybe that you learned about ed reform and what we need to do to get our schools back in good shape. is it justshape. is it just about the money? it seems like we have plenty of schools where we've thrown money at, and that doesn't necessarily do the trick. >> you know, i'm not really an expert on that. but i can say what i witnessed was every school is different. and you have to find what works for the kids that you're serving. so at 318 i think what they found that worked really well was a robust afterschool program. a lot of kids come from working families. they don't necessarily have somewhere to go home after school. they don't want to be sitting in front of the tv or hanging out with their friends on the streets and the kids are actually craving really kind of meaningful activities after school, and i think for that school that works. so i think for every school it's a little different but you kind of have to figure out what the key is and how to unlock it. >> katie, there's a moment in

the film that really touched me. can i show a clip? >> a district attorney, then attorney general. from governor to senate, from senator to president. >> i was really blown away by seeing this boy map out this amazing future step by step. it made me think about how this sort of an enrichment program is about way more than just the specific skill that we're discussing. it's about just enriching his entire life and making him feel he has a future of whatever he wants, and that's what you're covering, right? >> yeah. there's so much that chess does for a kid. i think there's this quote in the film that there are more possible chess games than atoms in the universe. when i heard that, i thought, wow, like to think about as a kid to con template that many possibilities is kind of thrilling, and for a kid to think that those kind of pockets can translate into their life, not just on a chess board but the kind of possibilities they have in life. that's something that i saw happening at 318, and then

there's a whole host of other things that you can get from chess, patience and hard work and also, you know, the kids really -- it requires a lot of self reflection after a game to kind of figure out what you did well, what you did wrong, and that helps the kids understand how to get better at something, which is certainly something that we could all use. >> katie, i want to go back to a quote from the initial clip that we played where they said the geeks, they are the athletes. it should be noted that this school is not just successful at chess. it's successful all the way around, high test scores, doing quite well as a public school. i was struck when i was flying to india one time with my husband on the cover of the magazine on the plane, it wasn't an athlete, it wasn't an actor, it was a chess master. and i thought it said a lot about who is valued and what sort of skills are elevated and celebrated. do you think part of the success of the school as a whole is that the chess stars are seen as sort

of the cool kids and the rock stars and that's what's valued? >> absolutely. i think that was the thing that caught my attention immediately when we got to the school and we saw the banners and the trophies covering the hallways, and it wasn't just the football players or the volleyball players, the baseball players. it was the chess kids, and i think when you remind kids that they, you know, could think outside the box and kind of chart their own path of what they find interesting, that you can be geeky per se and that could be really cool. i think at 318 that's inspired everybody at the school. >> all right. katie, congratulations on all the buzz. the film "brooklyn castle" looks great. how is this for a tie-in, this was also jay-z's junior high. >> what? >> i should have been ready for that. we'll show it to you. not who you might expect. what? >> what? a shadow of your form? c'mon, michael! get in the game!

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valuable. obama looks cool by hanging with j and j looks powerful hanging with obama. hip-hop's ability to scare anyone is long gone. this is a web-only ad and it fits we are ads meant to rally blacks. one of them sober and starring morgan freeman. other unforgettable and starring samuel l. jackson. >> we're all on our own if romney has his way and he's against safety nets. if you fall, tough luck. so i strongly suggest that you wake the [ bleep ] up. >> but the j ad takes on an extra di mention when obama refers to him as achieving the m.a.s. american dream. j is not a politically conscious emcee, but he does occasionally mention political issues. just being a rapper makes you a political entity because so many have presented themselves as

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